A Review of the ghd Creative Curl Wand

ghd has long been one of my favourite hair care/styling brands for a while now. I’ve had my ghd Air for several years and it’s been on many, many weekend breaks, staycations and holidays abroad. I would definitely choose to have my hairdryer over carrying an extra outfit or pair of shoes so it’s dear to me indeed!

When I first heard about the new Curve range of styling tools from ghd I was quite excited but it took me some time to talk myself into a purchase. It wasn’t something I’d pick up on impulse and I also don’t really like to heat-style my hair very often. Still, the range was so sleek looking and it seemed functional – but let’s be honest, I’m a magpie and attracted to shiny new stuff. I did do my research – looking at several dozen YouTube videos and blog reviews demonstrating the tool before I finally gave in and decided to cough up the £100-odd I knew this thing would cost.

So, mind made up, I wandered into the John Lewis in Kingston and over to the (tiny) ghd station to pick up a new curling wand. I was quite clear in my head that I wanted a wand rather than a set of tongs – the latter and I never could see eye to eye over all the hair I’ve lost to dodgy clamps. What I didn’t know though was which wand to choose – ghd offers the ‘Classic Wave Wand’ or the ‘Creative Curl Wand’.

According to the ghd website CWW offers “deep, lustrous waves with glamorous movement” while the CCW (I wonder how much thought went into the branding to get those acronyms!) claims to produce “natural looking curls to beautiful, relaxed waves”.

The kind of curl I like definitely fits the ‘loose waves’ description but I also like to think big and voluminous rather than coiled and springy. There isn’t much variation in the colour of my dark brown hair so tighter curls can end up looking one-dimensional and flat.

Having looked at pictures of both the wands, I was a bit suspicious of the way they looked – the Classic Wave had an even barrel but was kind of flattened, while the Creative Curl was similar but with a long, tapered end. Whenever I curl my hair, I find it very hard to get the ends to curl and not just look ‘bendy’ so I was reluctant to pick up the tapered Creative Curl which looked like it might leave my ends looking more like rat tails than tousled waves.

I don’t know about you but the pictures and descriptions left me more confused than ever so I asked the sales lady at John Lewis for her recommendation. When she heard I did not like tight curls, she immediately recommended the ‘Classic Wave’ wand, assuring me that it would give me that loose wave I wanted. Job done.

A stylish box but I couldn’t find one that came with the case I’ve seen others with.

I walked off with my purchase in hand but being the obsessive YouTube/blog junkie that I am, I looked up reviews of both tools and watched them again and again in-between rifling through the sale racks. There was this niggling sense of doubt that I had made the wrong choice and I just wasn’t convinced that buying a flat-ish even barrelled wand was going to help with the ‘bendy ends’ issue.

And so, just as we were on our way back to the car park, I rushed back into the store with a breathless apology and mumbled explanation of how my sister told me to swap wands because she knows my hair type and what would work. Why didn’t I just tell the lady the truth? Because honestly, making something up seemed a lot more plausible – go figure.

Anyway, back to my purchase and I can tell you I’m quite pleased I made the swap. Though I haven’t personally tried the Classic Wave, the Creative Curl does everything I want – particularly with the ends of my hair.

The wand is quite slim with a tapered barrel as you can see in the picture. It doesn’t have any heat settings and comes with just the on/off switch and some funky tones and tunes that tell you when the appliance is on and ready to use. As far as packaging & finish of the actual product go, it is about what you would expect from ghd – sleek, luxurious and sexy black.

Pros:

Heats up super, super fast! While this is helpful when you’re in a rush, don’t be tempted to set it down without protecting the surface first

Very light and comes with universal voltage – helpful if you’re always buying cheap appliances to cope when travelling

Built-in automatic shut-off if the appliance isn’t used for more than 30 mins

Expensive. The Creative Curl will set you back £120 but it comes with a 2 year warranty and as someone who owns a few other ghd tools, I would say it’s well worth the investment

The wand I bought did not come with a case and I couldn’t see an option to buy a version that had one in the store. This is quite a major con for me as I love the stylish case my ghd flat irons came in which doubled as a heating mat. I have seen other reviews that show a case of some sort so it may be that this was just part of the packs that went out as PR

This may just be me but I found it really hard to decide between the Creative Curl and Classic Wave. The images on the ghd website show the ‘extremes’ of each look and what I wanted was really somewhere in-between

Having used the wand a few times now, I can honestly say that it really does produce curls that last all day and these then drop down into very soft, pretty waves. In fact, I’m currently on day 3 with these waves and they look so naturally tousled that I’ll be sorry to wash them out this evening!

Excuse the lighting in this pic! I’d just come back from work and there wasn’t a lot of natural light left.

Is the Creative Curl worth your money? Yes – if you’re like me and want maximum results without having to heat style your hair everyday. I’ve had similar results with other curling irons but they usually don’t last this long. I also didn’t use any curl hold spray (though ghd recommends doing so) but I did protect my hair with Bumble & Bumble’s Invisible Oil Primer. There’s a little hairspray holding everything together but that’s pretty much it!

I know that the range isn’t cheap but they’re reasonably priced for a good quality product and from my personal experience with everything ghd that I own – they will last ages.

Have you bought or are thinking of buying anything from the ghd Curve range? I’d love to hear what you think of the Creative Curl or any other tools in the range and whether they worked for you. Leave me a comment below.